Turkey:
Stop the Aggression against the Kurds!

No to the US/France/UK Crusade against the People of Iraq and Syria!

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 29 July 2015, www.thecommunists.net

1. In the last few days
we have witnessed a major escalation of the conflict between the bourgeois, pro-imperialist Erdogan government of Turkey and the Kurds in North-Kurdistan (Southeast Turkey). The events began with
a horrific suicide bombing in Suruç carried out by Daesh/IS against a rally of SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Associations), young Turkish socialist activists, who came to the
district of Suruç in eastern Turkey from Istanbul with the intention of participating in the rebuilding of Kobanê just across the border in northern Syria. In the brutal bombing, 32 young
activists were killed.

2. Following this
barbarous act, an uprising broke out in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, many Kurds accusing the bourgeois Turkish government of secretly supporting Daesh/IS against their Kurdish brethren. It is
understandable that Kurdish workers can believe such conspiracy theories inasmuch as the Erdogan government is directing much of its military force to suppress the just liberation struggle of the
Kurdish people. However, it is absolutely not true that Daesh/IS is the instrument of Turkey (nor of any other state). Regardless, Ankara is evidently exploiting the pretext of the “war on
terror” to crack down primarily on the petty-bourgeois nationalist Kurdish PKK and not Daesh/IS. Towards this end the Turkish army has used some isolated armed attacks of the PKK against Turkish
police as an excuse to reopen its assault on Kurdish resistance camps in northern Iraq. It appears that, until now, the Turkish military has directed its attacks mostly against PKK forces in
northern Iraq and not against the YPG (People's Defense Units), the armed wing of the Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party) in Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria.

3. The RCIT calls upon
all revolutionaries to stand unequivocally on the side of the Kurdish people and to defend them against discrimination and oppression. Likewise we call for the defense of the HDP against the
fascist MHP’s threats to outlaw it. While we reject the left-wing nationalism of the official petty-bourgeois leadership of the Kurdish masses, we stand shoulder to shoulder with them when they
fight for progressive goals. It is especially important that the workers’ movement in Turkey makes efforts to break the mass-influence of Erdogan’s bourgeois AKP (Justice and Development Party).
However, it is impossible to do so by simply denouncing the government in Turkey as a “fascist,” as many Stalinists and other leftists do. We completely reject the Maoist-inspired guerilla
strategy of the PKK and acts of terrorism by individuals against Turkish police and army forces. In particular we warn the Kurdish workers to be wary of the pro-imperialist leadership of the PYD
in Syria as well as that of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) in Iraq who are closely working together with the US and EU. To a limited extent the
Kurdish forces have received weapons from the Western imperialists as well as military training and air support. However, the liberation of the Kurdish people and the establishment of a free, red
Kurdistan can only be achieved by a consistent revolutionary workers’ party. Building such a party is the most important task today in Turkey and Kurdistan.

4. While the Erdogan
regime continues it stepped up attacks on the Kurds, in parallel it is moving closer to the imperialist “Alliance” against Daesh/IS. The Alliance fighting Daesh/IS is composed of
mostly arch-reactionary imperialist or pro-imperialist forces, like the great powers of the US, Britain and France as well as their lackeys in the region (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Morocco,
all of them brutal dictatorships, and the Iraqi Haider al-Abadi regime which is serving both Washington and Teheran). In addition, this unholy alliance includes countries and forces closely
aligned to Russian and Chinese imperialism (Iran, the Assad regime in Syrian and Hezbollah).

5. It is the position of
the RCIT that the only justified defense struggles against the arch-reactionary thugs of Daesh/IS are those of the Syrian rebels who are simultaneously fighting against both Assad’s
army and Daesh/IS on the one hand and the Kurdish forces both in Syria (Rojava) and Iraq in addition to other national minorities on the other. While we support these justified struggles
against Daesh/IS, at the same time we call for the defeat of the intervening imperialist Alliance. We note that the butcher Assad is responsible for far more killing of civilians and far
more torture than IS, and it now seems – especially following the nuclear deal – that the US and Iran are moving closer together.

6. Revolutionaries in
Iraq and Syria must fight both the reactionary imperialist intervention and Daesh/IS. Regardless of our enmity to Daesh/IS, in the fight against this brutal, murderous,
arch-reactionary organization we condemn all bombings carried out by the warplanes and drones of imperialism. All imperialist must be kicked out of the Middle East! In Syria the revolution
against Assad must continue and be transformed into a fight for power of the workers and the peasants. Only when our class is in power can the war be ended and Syria rebuilt in the interest of
the masses!

* Down with the imperialist crusade!

* For a Federation of Workers’ and Fellahin Republics in the Middle East!